


Gryffindorish

by tealeaf523 (ConstantComment)



Series: HP Femslash February [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Age Changes, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Andromeda and Sirius Friendship, Bisexual Character, Coming of Age, Confessions, Disowning, F/F, Falling In Love, Femslash, Femslash February 2017, Femslash February Trope Bingo, First Kiss, Growing Up, Gryffindor, Gryffindor Andromeda, Hogwarts First Year, Hogwarts Fourth Year, Hogwarts Seventh Year, Lesbian Character, Marauders Friendship, Marauders' Era, Mentioned Lucius/Narcissa, Mentioned Remus/Sirius, Pre-Femslash, Rare Pairings, Roommates, School Drama, Slytherin, WLW Characters, Wizarding Politics, Wizarding Traditions, Wizarding World
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-01
Updated: 2017-03-01
Packaged: 2018-09-27 15:27:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10028270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConstantComment/pseuds/tealeaf523
Summary: She looked up at the smiling girl, mystified by the curve of her pretty eyes and heart-shaped face framed by brilliant ginger hair.“I’m Lily, by the way,” the girl said.“How do you do,” Andromeda replied. “You’re not a Weasley, are you?”“I don’t know what a Weasley is. Is it a terrible magical disease or something?”Andromeda laughed a little. “Something like that.”-A world where Andromeda Black is sorted into Gryffindor alongside Lily Evans.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Well, considering I started a bit late, 4/5 boxes checked isn’t too shabby! Here I’m filling the au: roommates box on my card for nooreva’s hp femslash february (trope bingo challenge) on Tumblr! 
> 
> I have been a little flexible with Andromeda’s age so she’s in the same year as Lily AND IN GRYFFINDOR FOR MAXIMUM DRAMA! I'm thinking she's a September baby, making her older than Lily by a couple months. 
> 
> Please let me know what you think (if anyone finds this thing)! I’m very happy with how it turned out.

**1st  
**

Andromeda shook with anger as she followed the small line of other girls and boys up stairs and stairs to a portal on the seventh floor. She was not supposed to be here. She was supposed to be joining her elder sister, Bella, and the other Slytherins in that fantastic, lavish dormitory under the Black Lake, where she could watch the mermaids and the grindylows swim by every day for seven years. Where she could be with the friends she grew up with, not these… simply _boring-looking_ children and her dreadfully rebellious cousin Sirius.

The Gryffindor Common Room looked like a lion had vomited all over it. Well, it looked quite comfortable actually, but there was much too much gold, which was as ghastly as Bella and Rodolphus and Regulus had said it was. Although she wasn’t sure how they had ever seen the inside.

A ginger-haired girl just ahead was gazing about like she’d been Confunded, small smile turned toward a brown-skinned boy with terribly unruly hair and square glasses.

Merlin, no, she was in the same House as a Potter?

The girls’ dormitory was much better, with velvety drapes and light yellow duvets over each four-poster bed. The ginger girl chattered with Alice Blishwick, a fortunately distant cousin from a blood-traitor family, as Andromeda approached her bed by a large, arched window.

She looked outside. The view was… magnificent. She could see cascading turrets and other windows across the castle, all lit from within with other Hogwarts students excited for the year ahead, and a little corner of the Quidditch pitch, and the Black Lake, and the mountains and stars beyond.

“Wow,” said a voice to Andromeda’s right. She looked over her shoulder and saw Ginger, whose bright eyes looked like luminous green glass. “This is incredible! I can hardly believe it.”

She sat on the bed next to Andromeda’s, bouncing a little on the mattress.

“Neither can I,” Andromeda intoned. She crossed her arms and sat on her own bed.

“You were quite a hatstall,” Ginger continued, glancing over at Alice and that girl Cressida whom Andromeda had had the privilege of watching eat during the feast. Their fourth roommate, Tammy (clearly a… _Muggleborn_ with that atrocious name) was already in bed presumably weeping. “What was the Hat trying to place you in? It told me I would be good for Ravenclaw, but I liked the sound of Gryffindor better.”

Andromeda felt the tears welling in her eyes. She would not cry! She was not some Tammy Gryffindor. “I’m meant to be in Slytherin,” she managed.

“One of my friends is in Slytherin too,” she said, sympathetic.

“My entire family is in Slytherin,” she said, turning to wipe her eyes with the sleeve of her robes. She didn’t even have her handkerchief! She was going to snot on her sleeve like a Gryffindor for the next seven years!

A small hand appeared in her blurry vision, and in its fingers rested a lovely white handkerchief with a flower embroidered into the corner.

Forget snot, Andromeda was going to be knocked over the head with unyielding Gryffindor friendliness for the rest of her life! She looked up at the smiling girl, mystified by the curve of her pretty eyes and heart-shaped face framed by brilliant ginger hair.

“I’m Lily, by the way,” the girl said.

“How do you do,” Andromeda replied, lifting the handkerchief from Lily’s fingers. “You’re not a Weasley, are you?”

“I don’t know what a Weasley is. Is it a terrible magical disease or something?”

Andromeda laughed a little. “Something like that.”

Lily grinned.

“Thank you, Lily,” Andromeda said after dabbing her eyes. “I’m Andromeda.”

“That’s such a lovely name: Andromeda.” She tucked her hair behind her ear. “Glad to meet you. I have a feeling we’re going to be fast friends. You’ll have to teach me all you know about magic. My friend Severus–he’s the one in Slytherin–he says…”

Andromeda let her shoulders fall, listening to Lily’s voice and letting it lift her spirits elsewhere, letting it take her mind away from dungeons and up to the twinkling stars above.

 

**4th**

Andromeda sat in the library with her chin in her palm, presumably studying tarot for Divination with Frank Longbottom, but really rather watching Lily scrawl a Potions write-up with a looming, greasy, _tedious_ Snape at the end of the table.

She’d given up reading her fortune some time ago, since the same card kept showing up after every reshuffle and giving her a distinctly uneasy feeling. Frank kept misinterpreting everything as a death knell, so he wasn’t fairing much better either.

Snape often leaned into Lily’s space in a much too familiar way, making snarky comments (that Lily thankfully responded to with equal sharpness when she wasn’t receiving paper aeroplanes to the back of her head from several tables down).

James ‘Quidditch is an Art’ Potter and his gang were the perpetrators, focused not on their books but on the ever-rising shoulders of Lily and her oily Potions partner, snickering and elbowing each other (well, Potter elbowed Pettigrew and Lupin on either side of him, the former guffawing and the latter bashful). Sirius sprawled opposite them with his feet propped up on the table, and he was smirking at Andromeda.

‘What?’ she mouthed at him.

Sirius just grinned wider.

When Frank excused himself to the loo, Andromeda knew she was doomed.

“An- _dromeda_ ,” Sirius sing-songed as he plopped into the vacated chair across from her.

“Whatever is so important that you had to be taken away from your bosom friends, cousin?” Andromeda sighed, turning to her textbook and pretending to be deeply interested in _The Hierophant_.

“Oh, Andy,” he said, pulling an apple from his robes and rubbing it on his sleeve before taking a bite. Through a mouthful he continued, “Do you not realize how obvious you are?”

Andromeda quirked an eyebrow at him, turning a page. “Whatever do you mean?”

“You’re staring rather intently at Mr. Nose down there,” he whispered. “I know you’ve changed since being sorted in Gryffindor, but you can’t be that desperate to be Slytherin to kiss just any of them.”

“You can’t be serious,” she said, and immediately regretted it.

“I definitely am Sirius.”

“Merlin’s beard, when will you stop? It wasn’t funny the first time!”

“Don’t change the subject! When’s the wedding?”

“Quit it,” she growled. She was going mad.

“Have you decided on names for your eight greasy children? How about Snandromeda and Snivellus Junior for starters, _Drommie_?”

“Don’t call me that. No one lives who gives me a nickname,” she hissed, pulling her wand from her sleeve.

“Black.”

Sirius and Andromeda snapped toward the snide voice. Andromeda caught the echo of a giggle behind Lily’s cupped hand, her green eyes squinting with amusement as Snape set his quill down, getting ready to spout some unoriginal vitriol. Andromeda’s mouth twisted, trying not to smile at Lily. Lily always laughed when she and Sirius were called out at once, possibly because Andromeda had admitted they looked like twins when they were infants, would bathe together and wear matching clothing, and would _hold hands_ according to some accounts.

“Do shut your mouth,” Snape said to Sirius. “We are becoming more dim-witted by the syllable, listening to you blather on.”

“You’re one to talk, Snivellus. I don’t know how you do it, Evans,” Sirius drawled. “Do you take pity on him because he’ll cry otherwise?”

Andromeda could see Lily’s mood change abruptly. She straightened in her chair and put a delicate hand on Snape’s arm, which was probably smart since he looked like he might draw his wand within the next two seconds.

“Cousin,” Andromeda interjected. “Do go away or I’ll tell them all about the time you wet yourself in front of Evanna Rosier at the Malfoy’s Solstice Ball.”

Sirius blanched.

“I think you just did, ‘Meda,” Lily said.

Andromeda winked at her, but not before she saw the dawning realization on Sirius’ face. She ignored Snape’s sniggers in favor of Sirius folding his arms and tilting his head.

“Low blow, cousin,” he said quietly, leaning in. “But I’m glad. Anyone who can come up with an actual good nickname for you and live to tell the tale is a much better person to kiss.”

Andromeda could feel her cheeks blooming dark red. She glanced over at Lily, who was back to bowing her head with Snape over their parchment, nodding as he muttered and pointed at his textbook.

“You’ll have some competition, though,” Sirius called as he made his way back to the other table of Gryffindors, who looked up from their antics curiously. Potter sent another paper careening toward Lily, and Andromeda lazily tipped her wand to set it afire in mid-air.

Andromeda put her chin back in her hand and turned toward Lily, who was looking at her as Snape took over writing the essay. She tucked her ginger hair behind one ear and smiled, white teeth peeking through rosy lips for just a moment before she turned back to her work.

Andromeda resisted pressing a hand to her belly, wherein a colony of billywigs was fluttering about.

 

**7th**

Andromeda sprawled in a verdant patch of grass overlooking the Black Lake, an old copy of _Numerology and Grammatica, Vol. VIII_ abandoned at her side and partially shadowed by the willow tree above. It was a sunny day not overpowered by fog on the water, which gave her a clear view of the grounds where she could see students playing pick-up Quidditch on the pitch, a group of Hufflepuffs playing Snap in the shadow of the castle, and Andromeda’s younger sister, Narcissa, strolling on the lakeshore alongside Lucius Malfoy.

But, she had not spoken to either of them for months, not since last summer, nor had she to the rest of Pureblood society and the Black family save Sirius. There was a hole in her heart for her family, but the path they followed… it wasn’t one she could walk. It wasn’t one that she could stomach. And so she observed, when she should be revising for her Arithmancy N.E.W.T. as they were coming up next month.

Andromeda pinned her hair back into a bun instead of grinding her teeth in frustration.

“There you are, ‘Meda!” a girlish voice called out softly.

Andromeda turned at the sound and smiled a little, watching Lily climb the small hill until she joined Andromeda under the tree. On this spring Saturday, she wore naught but a thin strapped, pale blue tank top and her denim bell-bottoms that Andromeda had often noticed drew attention to her shapely, slender legs. She had forgone a bra, it seemed, and her hair, though nearly to her bum these days, flew about in the breeze and hid nothing from view.

“Your arrival has saved me from an afternoon of moping,” Andromeda said once Lily had folded her legs under her and dropped her rucksack beside them. Leaning her head back on her shoulder, she could watch the play of dappled sunlight on Lily’s cheek and neck without getting sun in her eyes.

“And why am I your heroine today?” Lily asked, mirroring Andromeda’s posture with a sweet grin. Andromeda was reminded for the trillionth time why she often wanted to kiss this girl.

She gestured to Cissy and Malfoy walking back toward the castle courtyard. Lily followed the line of her finger, and her smile dimmed.

“Every time I see that boy, he looks more and more…”

“Evil?” Andromeda offered with a snort that belied the sourness in her stomach.

“My sister and I are not on good terms, but I cannot imagine,” she began, and then turned back to Andromeda. “I cannot imagine never speaking to her again.”

“It’s easier since I found a flat with Sirius over the summer, but you know he’s as much an irritant as a balm.”

Lily laughed. Her hair fell from her shoulder, exposing her pale freckled skin and the strap of her top. Andromeda looked down at her textbook, debating whether to study or to just…

She snapped her book closed. “Do you know, I have a theory about Sirius,” she said, smirking.

Lily’s eyes narrowed with a smirk of her own. “Go on.”

“I think he’s absolutely smitten with Remus,” Andromeda went on. “Remus stayed over a week during the holidays and I swear you could cut the tension with a knife.”

Lily sat up and smacked Andromeda’s knee in excitement. “I thought so! They follow each other around like puppies!”

Andromeda shook her head, but a question niggled at her. “I’ve wondered… How do Muggles feel about men who love men, and–I suppose–women who love women?”

“It’s not the same in the Muggle world as here,” Lily muttered, picking at a loose fibre on one of her trainers. “It’s illegal in most places. And you cannot marry,” she said, shortly.

“It’s not Pureblood custom to marry either. But it’s not as unnatural as attraction to Muggleborns. Very frowned upon since we must keep the bloodlines _Toujours Pur,_ emphasis on the _Toujours_. Although, most of Wizarding society is much more open.”

“That’s… reassuring,” Lily said haltingly.

“I _suppose!_ Why, are you planning to marry a lovely witch anytime soon?” Andromeda pondered for a moment whether that was the most Gryffindor thing she’d ever said, given the circumstances.

Lily blushed, but she leaned forward and said, “I should think I could marry anyone I like, since I’m neither _Toujours Pur_ nor Muggle, yeah?”

Lily was, after all, Head Girl and one of the prettiest in their year according to most, and her kindness and humor endeared many more to her if they hadn’t already been convinced of her marvelousness.

Andromeda swallowed, and said, a bit gravelly, “I think you could.”

“Although, I can’t be sure unless I’ve lived with them, whether I should try and marry them after,” Lily murmured. “And I would certainly have to kiss them first, at least.” She was closer now, floating strands of her hair tickling Andromeda’s arms.

“That seems a very reasonable thing, and not at all Gryffindorish,” Andromeda said, eyes lidded.

“Well, I have told you I was almost sorted into Ravenclaw,” Lily said, and then she kissed her.

It was the best kiss Andromeda had ever had the pleasure of receiving. Even if the ones before were few and sloppy and far between, Andromeda could tell. Lily’s lips were soft and she smelled like her flowery perfume as she lingered. Andromeda followed her when she pulled away, taking her chin in her hand and placing several kisses against those smiling lips, the last lingering and shivery.

Lily laughed a little when they parted, twisting her hair over one shoulder. “I’ve wanted to do that for ages!” she admitted aflush.

“Lily,” Andromeda croaked, and then cleared her throat as she sat up primly. “Would you want to come and live with Sirius and me? We have a spare room–and I’ll hex myself if I have to share living space Potter for another second past graduation. Sirius is one thing, but…”

“I completely understand,” Lily said in a serious tone. “Anything to save you from that fate.”

“Lily,” Andromeda started, but became distracted when Lily tucked one of her flyaway curls behind her ear.

“Hm?” Lily asked.

“I’ve wanted to kiss you since I met you, I think,” she murmured.

Lily’s expression was at once beatific and stunned. But, after a while, she sat closer to Andromeda and leaned back to overlook the castle grounds, as she had found Andromeda earlier. But only after placing a soft kiss to Andromeda’s cheek.

Andromeda bit her lip, threaded her fingers with Lily’s, and did not feel so alone in the world.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Come flail with me at [byesweetheart.tumblr.com!!!](byesweetheart.tumblr.com)


End file.
